The venue for this activity was a little ways away from the dorms we were staying at. To get to the building the ball was being held at we had to take the subway, walk through a little suburb type area and then through a park. The ball was in a building kind of in the middle of nowhere all by itself. The normal building was under reconstruction or restoration, so they were holding it here. We had a few extra people join our group in order to make a participant requirement. We started by having to take our shoes off and put on these thin flat shoes. Then the boys and girls were separated to get their outfits on. The girls were taken into a room with racks of poofy dresses. We had to put on the hoop skirt and all. Then the ladies that worked there assessed our dress sizes by looking at us and pointing us in a direction. Once we picked out our dresses and were zipped in, we got gloves and head accessories.
The dressing up was easily the best part. We were then led downstairs again to the ballroom where we took so many pictures. It’s not every day that you get to dress up in ball gowns! Once the boys joined us in their costumes, our instructor joined us. He did not speak English, so this woman had to translate for us, but he was very passionate about the dancing and customs.
He taught us three or four different dances and they ranged from very slow and simple to fast paced and more complex like the polka. It was a ton of fun. We had to switch partners and go around in a big circle. Then we learned the language of the fans. Different fan colors as well as different gestures have different meanings. Some of the gestures include twirling it, putting it over certain body parts, and holding it in different hands. It is a rather complex system for having a fan be the only thing that conveys meaning. Then all of the ladies in the group got white fans and we learned dances where we used the fans as props, it was also really hot in that room, so we did use the fans as fans. After we finished learning all of the dances, we took more photos and then the boys and girls went our separate ways to change back into our normal clothes.
Reference for photo – www.fancircleinternational.org
Overall I thought this experience was amazing. This activity was so cool and unlike anything I have ever done and probably will do again. Dressing up in the ballgowns was so cool and it was so interesting to have to wear a dress that big and have to be so aware of your surroundings. That wasn’t something that I had ever considered before. Learning the dances was very interesting and finding out that there is a fan language. I would definitely recommend this for anyone going to Saint Petersburg. It was just very unique and the people that worked there seemed to really love their jobs and they seemed to be incredibly knowledgeable about all of that stuff. It was just such an awesome experience and I cannot stress that enough.
Refernces
http://www.angelpig.net/victorian/fanlanguage.html
https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/tag/language-of-the-fan/
I also thought this was a once in a lifetime opportunity! It was one of my favorite parts of the trip for sure. I never realized that there was a “fan language” and I felt like we learned a lot about the time period while having a good time. Dressing up was so much fun and everyone who has this opportunity should try to experience it!
I looooved this activity, it was such a once in a lifetime experience. It was so fun dressing from a different time and realizing people actually did these things. I couldn’t imagine wearing a dress like that everyday, yet women did it for centuries. As for the language of the fan, easily the shadiest language of them all, it was hard for me to take that seriously, imagining women actually telling a man they don’t love them anymore with a fan. The polka was my favorite dance, but again, thinking that women had to jump around in those hot dresses and pretend like they weren’t out of breath, I give them props. I would not have been a very good lady that’s for sure, but to live the fantasy for a day was so much fun.
This was one of my favorite activities as well! Getting to dress up like that has always been a dream of mine! I am so happy we all got to experience this together. It was an interesting way to learn about the time period. I never thought dancing and fan language would be something to look at in history until we did this. Although it was a little hard and hot at first, it was all worth it. I had so much fun!! What a great experience!
This was one of my favorite activities as well! Getting to dress up like that has always been a dream of mine! It was an interesting way to learn about the time period. I never thought dancing and fan language would be something to look at in history until we did this. Although it was a little hard and hot at first, it was all worth it. I had so much fun!! What a great experience!
I had always wanted to wear a dress with an underskirt- and now I can say I have. It was an experience that truly took me back to the past and gave me an insight into Russian culture that I had no idea about. Not to mention the fan language- I would have never guessed that that existed, but it is a fascinating part of past social interaction. The dancing was difficult and I give the people of the past props for being able to do it dressed that way!